Methods of Teaching Vocabulary

Today we learned about two approachs for teaching vocabulary:the Teach and Learn Approach and the Learning through Input Approach. You can see a Power Point presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English Teacher.

1.The Present and Learn Approach

First, I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the Present and Learn Approach.

◇Strengthes
・Students listen to explanation of a techer, learn the meaning of the vocabulary and how to use them,and they could understand the vocabularies.
・By the teacher explaning interestingly or using picture, diagram,video and so on, students could study enjoyably.I think visual aids are very useful for English lesson.

◇Weaknesses
・Tacher cannot know that whether every students can understand the lesson, at any time.There may be a case that during the lesson, student couldn't become to understand the contents and give up to learning.
・Student may confuse because there are one-side teaching and many grammars and vocabularies appear.

2.The Learning through Input Approach

Second, I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the Learning through Input Approach.

◇Strengths
・Student could learn enjoyably.Teacher using pictures , cards, diagrams and so on,it is easy for student to memorize.
・Students could practice pronounciations of vocabularies together or individually.They pronounce over and over,and memorize them naturally,step by step.

◇Weaknesses
・There may be students who could not catch up with the pace of the lesson.And when teacher ask the student how to ponounce the vocabulary, he/she would be not able to answer it.
・The English understanding levels of students are each different,so learning speeds are different,too.


Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would favor a Hybrid.I think that by only the one of two methods,to make teaching is a little difficult.So I favor to keep balances of two methods.